ASUS Transformer Book T100 Review: Redefining the Entry-Level Windows Notebook
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 18, 2013 12:00 AM ESTCPU Performance
The Atom Z3740 in the T100 features a 9% lower base clock and 22.5% lower max turbo frequency than the Z3770 we previewed back at IDF. Given how good of a job Bay Trail does turboing up to max frequencies under normal use, I’d expect proportionally lower scores in our tests.
I’ll start with our cross platform browser based benchmarks before moving on to a look at the Z3740 vs. Z3770.
Note for all of these benchmarks I’ve used Google’s Chrome browser. IE11 integrates well into the modern UI of Windows 8.1 but is otherwise a pretty terrible browser by comparison. I think the modern UI Chrome experience on 8.1 isn’t as good, but it’s a better/faster/less-finicky option. Out of all of our tests only SunSpider seems to run quicker under IE11, whereas Chrome wins everywhere else. I think it’s a bit insane to switch between browsers based on the benchmark being run, so we’re sticking with Chrome across the board.
Lightly threaded performance is actually quite comparable to the Chromebook 11, which was a bit surprising. Throw a multitasking workload at the two notebooks and you'll separate the boys from the men though:
Chrome under Chrome OS performs extremely well for obvious reasons. But here the T100's additional cores and solid memory interface really come in handy when multitasking, there's hardly any performance penalty for this sort of multitasking on Bay Trail while the dual-core Cortex A15 based Chromebook needs serious help.
The T100 remains extremely competitive compared to the Chromebook 11 and definitely compared to Android tablets.
Next up is putting the Atom Z3740's performance in perspective compared to our earlier FFRD data:
In all of these tests we see nearly perfect scaling compared to the Atom Z3770. Turbo frequencies are regularly hit when under load, and as a result see see proportionally lower performance from the T100. I would’ve liked to have seen the Z3770 used in the T100, but not if it meant a higher price, an optional dock or a worse display.
GPU Performance
I didn’t have a ton of time to go through gaming performance on the T100, but with a quarter of the EUs of Ivy Bridge it’s clear that you shouldn’t expect a GPU monster out of Bay Trail. In our cross platform graphics tests however the T100 is quite competitive, although not industry leading by any means.
I did see some choppy animations at times and indications that the GPU (or its drivers) weren’t up to snuff, but that’s exclusively in classic desktop mode. In the modern UI, the Atom Z3740 was very smooth.
Storage Performance
Our Android IO tests rely on Androbench with a relatively limited LBA span. I increased the difficulty of the test a bit under Windows 8.1 but still kept it reasonable since we are dealing with eMMC solutions. I’m testing across a 1GB LBA span and testing for a period of 1 minute, which is an ok balance between difficulty of workload and sensitivity to the fact that we’re evaluating low-class SSDs here.
Sequential read and write performance is competitive with the high-end examples we’ve seen in the Android space. Random read performance is similarly good, while random write performance is appreciably better than what we’re used to in Android tablets. It is good to see ASUS/Intel/Microsoft concerned about random write performance, but I’d still like to see a 5 - 10x increase in these numbers with a focus on sustained performance before I’m truly happy.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
158 Comments
View All Comments
Callitrax - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
Anand, one issue I have with this review, most of the text approaches the T100 solely as a laptop (paragraphs on the keyboard dock, nothing on balance in hand as a tablet, not one of the gallery images show it detached) Whereas my curiosity in this is as a tablet with occasional laptop functionality. How well does it function as a tablet? Some of the benchmarks help there, but nothing in the Final Words section relevant to that usage mode.azazel1024 - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
I don't entirely agree. I care about the display quality and the Delta-E does matter to me to a degree. What I would have liked to have heard more was, AFTER calibration, what was the best Delta-E capable.I am planning on using this for light photo editing on the road when I need to travel light, so the display quality does matter a lot. I don't need spot on color or 100% sRGB (I am dissapointed that % of sRGB color gamut was missing from the test), but if after calibration it is still 10+ off that would be dissapointing.
I'd love to spend more money on a higher quality Windows 8.1 tablet, but roughly $500 is still my price ceiling and so far I haven't seen anyone announce a Windows 8.1 tablet, that is dockable, has a microSD card slot is less than 11" in size and is $500 or less. Pretty much just the T100 so far. I'd be more than happy to pay as much as $100 more for a better/higher DPI display, the z3770 and 4GB of RAM and call it a day (as per my earlier comment. 300Mbps capable Wifi would also be nice).
For a $399 64GB dockable tablet, the thing seems pretty nice. It seems like there are areas of improvement and in a generation or two, they might be improved or for more cost in this generation (I'd be suprised if in a few months Asus doesn't come out with a higher level Windows 8.1 dockable tablet, which is maybe why better silicon/memory/display are not checkable options on the T100. It might saved for a T200 or something coming in $100 or more higher in price).
spejr - Friday, October 18, 2013 - link
This is an entry level pad with an keyboard cover, only difference is the hinge. How come this review is so positive? I cant imagine this being a good alternative for either a laptop or a tablet, just too many compromises in the same piece of cheapnes. The only argument is economy, but then again my ThinkPad X61 is still running smooth since 06 so thats not a good argument either as quality is cheaper over time. racing to the bottom with one year of life expectency for each device is not the way to go, with anything.AsusJake - Sunday, October 16, 2016 - link
windows 10 64 bit os on mine only 2 gigs of ram... and runs circles around my 6gig ram quadcore 64 bit vista hp desktop...makken - Saturday, October 19, 2013 - link
Hmm, does anyone know if Asus is planning on making a laptop--i.e., a non-detachable version, of this thing?wrkingclass_hero - Saturday, October 19, 2013 - link
No pictures of it undocked from the keyboard in the gallery?Tams80 - Saturday, October 19, 2013 - link
For those disappointed in this, the Fujitsu Q584 might be of interest.It's not available until December though and will likely come with the usual high price tag. The cheaper ones, the Arrows, are Japan only and on par with the T100.
timon_comment - Saturday, October 19, 2013 - link
Waiting a look in Bay Trail M + SATA, Pleasein Windows x86 OS I dislike the eMMC storage system, it is an execrable design, the heavyweight Windows x86 OS is fully unlike in the lightweight Android OS, Windows needs SATA and PCIe, but Atom Bay Trail T is still no support SATA and PCIe.
Intel actually wanted in Android to compete with ARM processor, does not really want Bay Trail T to help Windows tablet to compete market, because the x86 processor is almost no another competitor! Now is Intel wanted to control the Android market!
timon_comment - Saturday, October 19, 2013 - link
Note,Atom Bay Trail T is still no support SATA and PCIe
markc22 - Saturday, October 19, 2013 - link
Please test any Linux distro on this.